From Health Resort to Pleasure Resort

Reconstructing Harrison Hot Springs as a tourist destination, 1920–1930

Lydia Kinasewich

Lydia Kinasewich was the recipient of the 2022 W. Kaye Lamb Student Scholarship from the BC Historical Federation, and this article is an excerpt from that essay. For more information on Lydia’s work, see her video on the BCHF YouTube channel, tinyurl.com/BCHFKinasewich. In the summer of 1920, a fire erupted on the roof of the St. Alice Hotel situated alongside Harrison Lake, destroying a key tourist accommodation and diminishing accessibility to the healing properties of Harrison Hot Springs. News of this fire was reported throughout the province, noting the loss of a well-known British Columbian hotel.1 After the fire, the only attraction left for tourists at Harrison was the hot springs itself. It became clear that with the loss of this tourist destination centred around health came a new opportunity…

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British Columbia History (Digital) - 1 Issue, 58.1 Spring 2025

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